Baby Claire's Blog: Driving me to drink

Not literally - so don't worry!

Claire had a good visit today at Duke. It was her 1 week check up after being discharged. She did great until she realized she was back at the hospital and then she cried and cried. It took Granny holding her to calm her down. And it also took me, Granny, and the ECG technician all singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in awful unison. What a sight!

Claire finally calmed down and did great getting her blood drawn surprisingly. I asked if they would also run a liver panel while they were drawing blood, so they did and it turned out good. Claire also had a chest x-ray to check for fluid around her heart and in her lungs and that came back good as well. She actually seems to like the x-ray each time because she gets to lay in this really nice foam bed thing that snuggles her. I need one of those.

I also pointed out to the NP that Claire's belly was looking more distended than normal. Especially on the right side, and she agreed. So they ordered a liver ultrasound today and we got that done while we were there. I don't know the results of it yet. But I noticed one of the fluid filled cysts was measuring around 5 cm x 5 cm or so. I think that's bigger than it was, but I don't have those measurments. I need to get those from the last 3 ultrasounds so I can compare.

We shopped at the Duke bookstore and bought some Duke t-shirts and then headed to Aunt Julie and Uncle James' for our pit stop on the way home. Claire did great getting there and enjoyed playing with their cats and the new dog, Bernie.

Then came the dreaded ride home again. After last time, I was very nervous. But she settled down and went to sleep in Clayton. She was sleeping pretty hard, so I decided I would take a nap to while Granny drove us home. Then out of the blue while we were passing Baron and the Beef in Kinston, Claire let out startling screams! Here we go - it was around 5:15 pm. Her screaming hours are between 4 pm and 6 pm each day. We are thinking it's a touch of colic.

So just like last time, we pulled off at the ABC Store in Kinston. These people are going to think that we are crazy bringing a screaming baby to the ABC Store each time we have a Duke trip! This time I had to get out of the car and walk her around to try to calm her down. So instead of giving Claire a stiff drink from the ABC store, we pulled out the Gripe Water and tried to get her to swallow some. She did swallow a few drops between screams and began to calm down. We don't know if it was the Gripe Water working or if she was beginning to come down from the colic cries. Either way, she felt better. And then we had to break the law - again. I had to hold her all the way back home again. I am seeing a pattern here...... So not only did we hang out at the ABC Store, we also broke the law today. Again. But y'all just don't know how loud this little baby can scream! Ask the people pumping gas at the store!

So Claire is spending the night with Granny, Big Daddy, and Aunt Amanda tonight so she can get some rest and so we can get some rest. We are waiting for the liver surgeon to call us about Claire's liver ultrasound and let us know what she thinks.

On another note, we saw on Facebook that Claire Elizabeth was back at Duke today for a stem cell reinfusion and had had several seizures yesterday. So they stopped by her neurologist's office to let him see Claire Elizabeth and he admitted her to the ER to get a CT scan and see what's going on. So please keep her and her family in your prayers. Also Eliza is home but is struggling with severe reflux and feeding issues. So please keep them in your prayers as well.

PS - Claire weighed 10 lbs 11 oz today! YAY!

Love,

The Scott Family